Great Guns of Icarus
by Church Shepard
Summary: A new world experiences a new coming of war. It's up to the powers that be to stop the oncoming violence, before the skies are filled with rockets and blood. Based upon the lore of Guns of Icarus Online
1. Chapter 1

Generations ago, the industrial revolution gave mankind the power of machines. To create and destroy on an unprecedented scale, greater than ever before. Little did we know, this power would come with a price. Our greed and thirst for more lead to the world's destruction. Storms grew in power, wiping away cities in a matter of minutes. Water dried up to leave vast deserts in what were once oceans, and millions died from the resulting environmental shift.

The governments of the world struggled to cope, and many fell. Traditional means of transportation and contact where now impossible, with the environment being completely destroyed. The oceans turned acidic, to the point that all ships would dissolve before they left sight of the coastline. Populations grew distant and lost connection, until the invention of the air balloon revolutionized our ability to travel. Once again the powers of Europe grew and reconnected their old holdings.

Contact with the Americas was lost long ago, millions of refugees fled east across what was the Atlantic, bringing with them stories of super volcanoes blanketing the sky. The displacement lead to violence and riots, as people protested the mass migration. Eventually, these refuges managed to find homes in the countries that once laid claim to their home colonies. People from the States and Canada migrated towards the English Isles, while Latin Americans fled to Spain and Portugal, as well as new colonial holdings in North Africa.

But a new power grew from these ashes of destruction and conflict. A man by the name of Niels Juel rose to power in central Europe, with the promise of uniting the continent under one almighty banner. He's already spread his army of air ships east, being blocked only by the United Arab Empire in the south, and the warring nomads in the Asia. His country now has its eyes set for the west, encroaching upon the borders of France and Spain's Africa. The new British government, which managed to unite the entirety of the British Isles in a loosely conjoined parliament, has seen the coming war and begun preparing its air force for the inevitable. Her forces are lead by High Admiral Artose, a veteran of the Arctic Raider wars, and a sound tactician who has pledged to stop the encroaching empire from taking hold of France.

Having recently met with the French government at Paris, Captain Church Shepard and his crew are returning home to New London aboard the_ HMS Normand_y, a nimble Squid class airship.

* * *

**Ch 1**

**While I was at Sea**

**Church**

A cool breeze on a warm summer's night, these were the little moments that I lived for. The comforting of tiny portions in time that prove to be the most relaxing. And nothing provided such comfort, as flying my ship across the crystal clear skies of the English Channel. My hands, sturdy at the wooden helm, one fist clenched firmly at the throttle, while the crew slept comfortably below the wooden deck next to the hull armor. These silent nights might seem to some to be boring and ill conceived, but to me they were the greatest gift of my nights away from home.

I had been a captain of the British Navy for only a short time, one of the youngest allowed to pilot a ship, and one of the few Squid pilots to have any competence whatsoever. Squids were fast ships, but brittle as hell, with a hull so thin most captains wouldn't dare fly in without the support of a heavily armed Galleon coming with. Of course, I wasn't most captains. Not only had I excelled at missions shaking both my ship and crew to their limits, but relished in it. Flying head on into a heavily armored enemy and ramming them with my paper thin hull as my crew grabbed one another and screamed in fear, that was just another Saturday night for me. It was because of this rather unconventional flying that my fellow captains had labeled me as the "Crazy American" with no regards for sanity. But there were few that could match my skill in a dogfight.

I watched as the sun slowly rose from the horizon, basking me and the ship in its warmth, and revealing the ocean of desert sand below. One could have mistaken it for crashing waves in the darkness of night, but now it acted as a blinding mirror, baking the underside of the ship with the sun's unrelenting heat. Pulling the throttle back, I waited for a moment as the ship's momentum kept it drifting further for a few seconds longer. Once the vessel had stopped completely, I took a moment to appreciate her durability and grace, taking special note of the _HMS Normandy _painted on the balloon above me, the white paint chipping off the side of the brown surface. Despite her flaws and age, she'd managed to sail from Paris to the desert separating Britain from mainland Europe in only a day's time. But with her engines running constantly, the old girl would start to over heat quickly in the desert sun.

Turning hard on my heels, I made my way over to the main deck, where the helium, flamethrower, and hull armor all had their positions nestled snugly in their respective places. My crew, being the lazy bunch of dogs they were, had managed to find a few hours shut eye below the deck, where crudely made hammocks hung from the deck floor. There was barely enough room for them down there, their backs scratched the ground as they swung slowly from side to side, with barely fifty centimeters between the deck and the bottom of the ship.

Taking a moment to clear my throat, I made an extra effort to be as loud as was seemingly possible. "Wake up! Time to get up and on your feet, I want the deck cleaned and the guns buffed, move it!"

As expected, the three that were my crew jumped from their beds and crawled out of the crawl space.

"Morning, Cap," Godo said as he climbed up the few stairs past me. He always seemed to wear a smile on his face, a trait that would sometimes drive me crazy, especially when he would chew that ridiculous piece of hay sticking out of his mouth like some kind of tobacco pipe.

Blueberry followed closely behind, giving me a pilot nod as she followed Godo to the balloon's gas container. She was shy, not saying much unless directly asked, odd considering she colored her hair a bright blue that contrasted heavily with her dark skin, and only But she did her job well enough that I was willing to giver her the privacy she wanted.

Last to show his face was Elliot, who stood up from the crawl space in a sluggish haze, still asleep under his soggy eyes. "Well good morning, Lieutenant," I spat, somewhat ruder than I had intended. "Good of you to come up and smell the roses."

"If it's all the same, sir," he started, rubbing his eyes clear of the blinding morning light. "I'd rather leave the roses unsmelt."

"Elliot."

"Yessir," he said, perking up a bit more now.

"Go check the guns, then get on breakfast," I ordered, marching myself back up the stairs to help with the _Normandy's _morning inspections. It was customary on long excursions to examine every possible component frequently, especially crossing the channel's dust storms. No captain wanted to be stuck in the desert fighting against pirates, who were said to travel by frequently looking for easy prey.

"Hey Church." I heard my name called from above, prompting me to crane my neck to the sky. "Got some thinning on the lining up here," Godo said, haning onto the ratline attached to the balloon above. "Nothing major, but something I need to look at when we reach port."

"Noted," I said, continuing my sort trip to the wheel. Squids weren't particularly large ships, far from it, they were built small and nimble for combat purposes only. The oddity of my crew taking this long excursion was only because of the need for speed, for which my ship was one of the fastest.

Stopping by the balloon's helium canister, I kicked the metal lightly, startling the body beneath. It took a moment for Blueberry to crawl up from beneath the canister, startled by the sharp clank of my kick. "And how does it look then, Blue?"

"Fine," she grumbled, not willing to look me in the eye. "Godo will need to clear the filter, I was just about to check the engines."

"Get on it then, Blueberry," I responded curtly.

"Aye Cap," she answered, turning around up the stairs behind her to look over the two main engines, and the mine-launcher that sat between them.

"Um, Church." Again, I heard my name called from behind, this time from the bow of the ship. Standing next to the flamethrower, with his spyglass pointed towards the west, Elliot was beckoning for my presence. Taking care not to fall down the stairs to the armor, I walked up to him, my hands held tightly behind my back in the same manner I so often had when walking.

"What is it then?" I asked, my tone slightly annoyed. Elliot was known to give any kind of excuse to avoid the morning chores of the ship, giving any kind of ploy just to procrastinate working by a few measly minutes.

He held out the spyglass for me to take, keeping his gaze pointed in the same direction the entire time. "I think there's something out there," he said, pointing off to where the sky met the horizon. Taking the tool from him, I held it aloft in my hands, peeping into the small piece of glass at its rear with one eye. The scene now magnified greatly, and I scanned the general direction for whatever Elliot must have seen.

"I don't see anything out there," I started, before something dark against the clear blue sky caught my eye. "Wait a moment." Turning the front lens in my hands, I magnified on the object. It was apparent to me now that it was in motion, traveling ever closer to us at a brisk pace. Focusing the blurred spyglass, it wasn't long until I managed to identify the profile of a Pyramidion, a small and sturdily built ship with an armored balloon that met in a point at the front.

"Is it a ship?" he asked me, his voice shaking at the thought.

"Looks to be, but she ain't flying any colors," I answered, trying to find the tell tale colors of the Union Jack. There were only three possibilities at who this ship belonged to. Either it was scavengers, looking through the dunes for fallen vessels hidden in the sand. Or it could have been another Navy ship, flying to some location on orders from above, like our own. However, the possibility of pirates seemed all the more likely.

* * *

**Bane**

Finding an easy picking in the sky, that's what I lived for. For the thrill of watching another ship's crew panic at the sight of my _Dancer _barreling down on them like the devil himself, that's how I got off on my weekends.

So, low and behold, right as the crew and I decide to head back home, a single ship flies into my hands. A nice and easy military Squid, a very expensive ship that would give a pretty pence back home in the arctic. If we could catch her, squids were notorious for out speeding everything except, save for the devil himself, a title I aspired to take.

"Alright ya scurvy dogs," I shouted, taking up my position on the helm. "Get that gat loaded Morbose. And so help me god, if you miss with that harpoon, Callum..."

"Yeah yeah," he shouted from the scaffold above, interrupting me. "You'll feed my legs to Ruij, and fire the rest of me off the front. I've heard it before."

Grumbling, I glared up at him as I pushed the throttle to full. "Hey, brother," I shouted, above the rising volume of the wind and sand. "Do your job right then! And Ruij, make sure the engines are chemed. Squids are notorious for bringing flamers." Turning my head over my shoulders, I only saw my engineer give a nod in acknowledgement, before running to the engines behind the cabin room.

It took a moment, but the _Dancer _managed to reach her full speed, pushing the hunk of metal and wood as fast as she might go. She was a slow ship to say the least, but she was tightly built and manageable for long excursions away from port. Perfect for trying to nab the perfect catch.

"Gat loaded," Morbose shouted, his body leaning over the gatling far above my head. He seemed almost as excited for this attack as I was, almost.

"Alright then boys, first catch of the day. Callum, raise the colors and ready the grappling hooks!"

"Aye aye, captain," the boy shouted, pulling the pulley next to his harpoon, to reveal the skull and crossbones to the world above.

Pushing down a switch above my wheel, I held on tight as the ship lurched forward. "Burning moonshine," I shouted, alerting the crew far too late to the fact. The wind picked up speed around us, and I could feel the thrill practically build up as our speed increased. Oh how I loved being a pirate!

* * *

**AN:** Note for those of you who don't know, the universe in this game is based upon the Steam Punk video game Guns of Icarus Online (Which is available on steam for a relatively low amount and I highly recommend if you want to play something new and unique), which is a post apocalyptic steam punk world where people fight in zeppelin type airships. These are the adventures of me and my merry clan mates as a tribute to all of those crazy bastards. With luck, hopefully others will like it as well =)!

And as always, thank you for reading.


	2. Chapter 2

** Ch 2**

**No Rest for the Wicked**

**Bane**

Speed is a key aspect of any battle. Be it the speed in which your ship can fly, or the speed of how quickly they can be destroyed. For the _Dancer, _speed always seemed to be against us. She's far from a fast or nimble ship, far from it, but her flexibility in combat is second to none.

"Ready to fire?" I shouted to the rafters above, only to be answered by the deafening hum of the weapon firing.

"Daka daka," Morbose shouted, with a hearty laugh.

Laughing with him, I pulled the lever above my wheel, pumping the engines with moonshine for an extra burst of speed. As soon as the ship jumped forward, I could feel the look of rage come from Ruij, as he rushed to stop the engines from flying off the hull. The Squid's crew was close enough to see now, almost well enough to watch the look of terror on their faces as they ducked for cover from the bullets pelting their hull.

"Harpoon loaded!" Callum yelled, obviously eager to take a shot.

"Fire!" I commanded, pointing my arm at the ship for good measure. A quiet hum followed, as the Harpoon shot across the ever decreasing space between our ships, and the Gatling paused to be reloaded. Flipping the moonshine lever again, our speed decreased drastically, but the momentum kept us going straight for their hull. "Brace!" I shouted above the roar of the wind and engines, as our ship slammed into theirs, spinning it to the side. Recovering from the initial rattle of contact, I cut power to the engines, bringing us to a complete stop next to the wounded Squid.

"Hooks ready! All aboard who's going aboard," I shouted again, my throat already growing irritated from the continuous yelling. Grabbing the hook and rope stacked neatly by the helm, I watched as Callum and Morbose grabbed their respected tools, waving them over their heads like a lasso ready to rope the steed. Callum threw his first, aiming directly for the large balloon above the Squid's hull. It was a surprisingly perfect throw given his thin frame, grabbing onto the metal framework surrounding the balloon. Without so much as a second thought, the boy gripped his rope and swung across the small divide between our ship and theirs, only to have his momentum fall short as the Squid unexpectedly shot forward.

It jerked our entire vessel off its knocker, dropping Ruij and me to the floor as the rear of the front of the ship swung around. The Harpoon cable had managed to find a firm place to hold onto in the Squid's main balloon, leaving us to her mercy as she dragged us along the sky. Callum had managed to hold onto his rope, and was gripping it for dear life as he was swung in the air behind the accelerating Squid.

"I'm going to cut the cable!" Morbose shouted, running across the scaffold above.

"Belay that!" I ordered, trying to formulate a plan as I watched Callum dance helplessly in the wind, his girlish screams pierced the howling wind. "We cut that rope, the Squid will escape, taking Callum with them."

Leaning over the railing of the scaffold, Morbose looked down on me as I took my position on the helm once more. "What are we going to do then?" he asked, as I stood their weighing my options.

Pyramidions could never keep pace with a Squid, meaning that so long as the Harpoon held, their ship would be slowed down immensely. Our weight on their port side would also make flying straight neigh impossible, as our hulking presence would cause her to lose control. Whatever her Captain was planning, odds were he wasn't planning on getting away.

* * *

**Elliot**

The pirates were on us faster than even Church could react, coming out of the clouds like a bottle of beer protruding from a keg of ice, an almost majestic sight to behold. The dust storms had managed to hide their advance, long enough so that by the time I spotted them, they were already within weapons range.

"Get down," the Captain shouted, pulling me to the deck of the ship as bullets whizzed over our heads. My training had told me that a Pyramidion would aim for the hull with a Gat, weakening the armor enough so that a mortar would destroy us almost instantly. But these weren't trained sailors of any navy, no they were half drunk pirates intent on wounding the _Normandy _enough to drag our boat back to some port. And if there was anyone who would rather fly her straight into the sand than enemy hands, it was Church Shepard.

The Gatling fire suddenly ceased, allowing me to peek my head up off the wooden deck, in time to watch as the Pyramidion slammed into us, causing me to slide across the rather small deck. Feeling my legs were now above air, I grabbed the railing in time to stop my whole body from falling overboard, even as the ship decided to swing itself wildly to the side.

"A little help please," I shouted, gripping onto the thin metal piece for dear life.

"I got you," Blueberry cried out, running over to help me up. She grabbed my arms, while the rest of my body dangled off the side, hundreds of feet off the shifting sand below. Gritting my teeth, I pulled myself up with her helping, one of her hands pulling me from my shirt collar, while the other pulled at my sleeve. With one final heave, she managed to have me back on solid ground, while her and I both fell over onto the deck.

"Thanks, Blue," I sighed, allowing a small moment to rest as I overcame my fear and relief.

"Enough sleeping, get off your feet and man your stations!" Yelled a voice from the helm. Somehow, Church had managed to run back to his wheel without getting blown off his feet, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that he had done so by jumping over the small gap that had separated the main deck and the side balloon.

"Aye sir," I shouted back, jumping up and helping Blue to her feet. Training would have to make due for experience for now, god knows Church burned those drills into our minds long enough. Once we were both back on our feet, I ran to the forward gun, thankful that the Flamer still appeared to be operational.

"Hold onto something and brace!" Church shouted again, giving me just enough time to grab onto the Flamer as we jolted forward. Looking back, I started to piece together what exactly our Captain had planned.

The Pyramidion had managed to land a Harpoon directly into the port side of our balloon, and I could tell by Godo's frantic cursing that at least one of our engines was down from the Gatling fire. Escaping wouldn't be easy, and a counter attack would be next to impossible. Something else caught my eye, and for a moment, I thought the desert heat had started to play tricks on me. One of the Pyramidion's crew had jumped the gun on boarding, and was now desperately trying to hang onto a rope as we gained speed. From the sound of the shrill screams coming from the person, I could only imagine it was either a woman or a twelve year old boy hanging from our vessel.

"Elliot, on the rear gun. Wait to fire mines on my signal," Church ordered, shouting through grinding teeth as he struggled to regain control of the ship. "Blue, check the armor, then help Godo get that damn engine back online!"

I sprinted back across the deck, dodging Blueberry as she jumped below deck to check the machine that pumped a coolant water mixture into the ship's hull to act as a thin layer of armor. Reaching the small flight of stairs, I bounded up them, taking the short number of steps two at a time, to find the Mine Launcher waiting for me. The screaming girl was still swinging back and forth from his grappling hook, and I could see two men of the enemy crew arguing back and forth, though I wasn't close enough to tell what exactly they were saying. "Ready on mines," I said, activating the spiked cannibal like ammo.

"The engine lost its air intake valve, it got shot up all to pieces," Godo shouted from behind me, half of his body had vanished into the metal frame work of the engine itself, as he struggled to remove any broken components that might hamper its performance. "I can't even get the thing take out to fix it!" he cursed, as Blueberry ran up to join him.

Looking back, I could see a devilish look in her eye, and physically braced myself for what would happen next. Without so much as a second thought, she swung her leg back and kicked the engine with all the force she could muster, visibly shaking the machine on its now frail hinges. "Ow," cried the man still inside of it, as he banged his head against the metal lining. "Why did you... oh." Pulling himself out of the machine, Godo threw a crumpled piece of metal to the ground, before grabbing his spanner and diving right back into it. "There got it, try it now, Church!"

And with that, the engine roared to life, coming back to full power like the others. "Good," the Captain shouted. "Dropping some tar and turning to starboard, Elliot slow them down."

"Aye sir," I responded, taking aim with the mine launcher as a thick black cloud formed behind us. The Launcher gave a heavy kick back as it shot the heavy ammo from its barrel, and I started the process of reloading another mine. A split second later, and the spiked ball deployed a square balloon, inflating it so that it could hang in the air peacefully. However, its brief moment of piece was immediately shattered as the Pyramidion caused it to explode across its hull.

"They're more or less disabled," Godo said, standing directly beside me as I prepped to fire another mine just in case. "Orders Cap?"

By now, I could feel our speed decrease as Church lowered the thrust. "Hold all fire," he said, cutting all power to the engines and giving us a kind of strange quiet to behold. Unfortunately for the swinging pirate, his momentum caused him to swing forward as we and the other ship slowed down, forcing him to fly through the deck and the balloon and fall as soon as the rope caught tension against the side of the balloon. I couldn't help but chuckle as the pirate dropped form his rope and landed against the deck hard on his ass, the screams stopping as soon as we heard a loud thud.

Walking down the steps, Godo pulled out the machete from his belt, pointing it at the man (it was clearly obvious now that the shrieks had actually come from a full grown man). "Stay down," he ordered, his command backed up by shoving the blade into his face.

Church walked over to the man, motioning for Blueberry to take the wheel as he strolled to the main deck. Meanwhile I kept an eye on the Pyramidion behind us, the tar had managed to gunk up their weapons and engines, and the mine took out what ever might have remained working, but I wasn't too keen on letting our enemies sit so idly behind us. Without their engines, there was no way for them to move and ram us again. Looking back to Godo and the pirate, I was interested to see what exactly the Captain was planning on doing here.

"Now, who are you?" Church said, pulling his pistol from its holder under his jacket.

"I um, er..." the pirate stuttered.

"I suggest you give him an answer," Godo snickered, using his free hand to pinch the piece of straw he always held in his teeth. "Captain doesn't like when folks mumble over his orders."

"First Gunner Callum, of the _Sky Dancer_," the pirate responded, swallowing a lump that had built in his throat.

"Who's your Captain?" Church asked, his voice low and leveled.

"Flynn Bane, sir."

"Then please, stand up. I'd like to meet this, 'Mr. Bane.'"


End file.
